Battle of Chancellorsville • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • Battle Facts • The Armies
The first monument at Chancellorsville to Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was an unmarked boulder placed alongside the Plank Road near the site where Jackson was mortally wounded. The boulder is a short distance from the Visitor Center, Stop 1 on the Chancellorsville Battlefield Auto Tour, and from the larger Jackson Monument on the Visitor Center walking trail.
An interpretive tablet a short distance from the boulder tells its history.
Text from the marker:
Jackson monuments
The effort to erect a monument at the site of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s mortal wounding began in February 1887, when Fredericksburg newspaper editor Rufus Merchant founded the Stonewall Jackson Monument Association. On June 13, 1888, a crowd of more than 5,000 spectators attended dedication ceremonies at the monument. Guests included the former Confederate cavalry general, Governor Fitzhugh Lee, whose vigilant scouting activities during the Battle of Chancellorsville contributed to Jackson’s success. Prior to construction of the monument, Jackson’s former staff officers, Beverly Tucker Lacy and James Power Smith, assisted by Lacy’s brother, J. Horace, of nearby Ellwood Plantation*, transported the large quartz boulder to the wounding site.
From the caption to the photo on the marker:
Two unidentified men stand near the large unmarked boulder brought here sometime between 1876 and 1885 to mark the site of Jackson’s wounding.
Location of the Monument
The boulder is a short distance from the Visitor Center along the walking trail.
*Note: Ellwood plantation is about 5.5 miles west on the Wilderness battlefield and is now part of the national battlefield park. After Jackson’s arm was amputated it was taken to Ellwood by Beverly Tucker Lacy and buried there.
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